On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (06/28/21), Hank picks up in Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus is approached by John’s disciples. They asked Him, “’How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast’” (Matthew 9:14-15 NIV). The power of this passage should never be underestimated. The Pharisees fasted because they were unwilling to recognize Messiah in their midst. The disciples, on the other hand, left the old and embraced the new. They realize that the bridegroom was in their midst and that he would one day carry them over the threshold of Jordon into the New Jerusalem. In essence, they perceive the real purpose of fasting—which is to experience God as the source and substance of life that is truly life. During this encounter, a ruler—identified in Mark’s Gospel as Jairus—knelt before Jesus and pleaded with Him to heal his daughter who has just died. On the way there, a woman reached out and touched the cloak of Jesus, thinking that if she just did so, she would be healed of her issue of blood. These two accounts are examples of Scriptural synergy, for both these accounts are fleshed out in full by way of the other synoptic gospels. Interesting and profound is the fact that in the middle of Matthew’s account of the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter is the description of the woman with the issue of blood. A woman who had spent the sum of her wealth on seeking a cure for an ailment that not only robbed her of strength but rendered her unclean in the eyes of the Jewish authorities. One thing it did not rob her of, however, was her faith in Jesus. Of one thing she was convinced: divine, omnipotent power resided in the Master of the Universe. And thus, as with Jairus’ daughter, her faith in the will of God in human flesh, brought wholeness and healing, not only physically but spiritually as well. True faith is ultimately rooted and grounded in the nature of God himself. And nothing is more crucial than a proper understanding of his power and his person.